meet alex. she’s an incoming senior this year, and just fabulous. she’s super gorgeous – don’t you love that beautiful hair?! she’s also the sweetest and she’s super smart – she’s got her sights set on columbia or brown. i have no doubts that she’ll get there!

alex chose the botanical gardens at golden gate park as the site for her shoot – i forget how awesome that place is. lots of pretty flowers and greenery…love it! one of my favorite spots that i don’t get to all that often.

the weather on the day of danelle’s shoot was NOT in our favor. it was super windy, it was freezing, and it was slightly drizzling. NOT a good day to shoot. you could see the sun on the marin side across the bridge, and the fog was thick as ever on the SF side – it was almost as if it was taunting us! seriously, you could not ask for worse conditions (is it seriously summer? because it sure didn’t feel like it). i couldn’t feel my fingers at times (not a good sign when you have to keep clicking the shutter!) – and i was the one with warm clothes on!

danelle, however, was not. i was about to ask her if she wanted to postpone her shoot for a warmer day, but she was determined. you could hardly tell that she was freezing – she just kept going on and posing for shot after shot, flashing one beautiful smile after another, even while wearing a tank top and a sleeveless dress in super chilly weather. while i kept whining that it was freeeeeeezing, there was not a peep from her. what a trooper. and from these photos, except for maybe the wind-blown hair (no need for a wind machine here in san francisco!), you couldn’t tell that it was freezing. not at all. what a rockstar! tyra would be proud.

danelle is one of my senior models for this 2010-2011 school year, and i could not ask for a sweeter, more fabulous, more gorgeous girl. seriously. LOOK AT HER. she’s a beauty. and she’s got a gorgeous smile. again, if she wasn’t so awesome, i might just really, REALLY hate her!

we headed out to the presidio and crissy field. we spent some time shooting in this flower field (which has been cut down somewhat since i was last there. booooo), and the forest, then headed down to the grassy areas of crissy field. i am starting to REALLY love the presidio lately (and i have a shoot to post with the most AWESOME location. but i digress). anyway. here are my (many) favorites!

(it wasn’t hard to get danelle to laugh. her friend chanel was around to coach her and crack her up, and also i’m a dork. heh)

probably my faaaaaavorite!

check out all that volume in her hair. it’s all a result of the craaaaazy wind. au naturel, baby!

this is one of the ONLY photos i have of her NOT smiling…

thank you sooooo much, danelle!! looking forward to an exciting year with you!

i have to admit that pier 39 and fisherman’s wharf are not my favorite san francisco locations. it’s always super crowded, and really, there’s not much there. however, i’ve always thought that it would make a fun place for a shoot – i love the carnival vibe and the color in the area. so when cassie gave me free reign to pick the location of her shoot, i suggested pier 39 – luckily, she was willing to go along with it! we also headed down to ghirardelli square, which has some awesome brick backgrounds.

cassie will be a senior this fall. she’s lived in the bay area her whole life, but is moving to indiana and wanted to fit in a shoot in san francisco before she left. she was up for anything – even with a bunch of tourists staring at her. in fact, there were a couple of people who snapped photos of her with their camera phones, thinking she was famous or something. since there are a bunch of street performers in the area, i joked that we should have a money cup in front of us while we were shooting and make people give us some change in exchange for a chance to get a photo of her – we would’ve made quite a killing, i think 😉

it also ended up being one of those typical san francisco days – sunny in the daytime, but with fog rolling in as it got closer to evening. our shoot started off with some sun, but the fog rolled in rapidly and it got quite chilly after a while. but you couldn’t tell in these photos – cassie was wearing shorts, and rocked it! it led to more stares from tourists who were thinking “who is this crazy girl wearing shorts and a tank top in 55 degree weather?!” but cassie was unfazed.

i had a lot of fun with her, and got a bunch of fun shots!

(while walking around and waiting for cassie to get there, i walked into a candy store and found this orange lollipop. i though it would be cute as a prop and fit the colorful theme of the shoot. it did!)

apparently i’m funny 😛

i looooove this one. cassie is goooooorgeous!!

so one of the first things we spotted at ghirardelli square was kara’s cupcakes. cassie asked if we could stop in for a cupcake, and as a cupcake lover, i couldn’t resist! (they were yummmmmy. kara’s is one of my favorite cupcakeries in the city!)

i really, really enjoyed working with danielle! she was such a delightful girl, not to mention that she is totally GORGEOUS! it was a treat for me to have her in front of my camera 🙂 danielle will be a senior this upcoming school year. she’s got big goals – she plans to start off at a community college, transfer to old dominion university to get her nursing degree, and plans to pursue midwife training. i love talking with my seniors, they all have such big dreams and the world is just wide open for them – it’s fun and exciting to hear about all their ambitions.

danielle and i started off at the ferry building, and then walked around the embarcadero. i love the variety of looks this area offers – you’ve got the classical architecture of the ferry building, the waterfront, and the field in front of the bow and arrow. there are a couple of cool buildings and alleys along the embarcadero, too! danielle is also an aspiring model, and she TOTALLY worked the camera!

my favorites:

helloooooo, gorgeous!

pier 14-

i love her expression here…

she kind of reminds me of angelina jolie on the photo on the right…

if you haven’t noticed by now, i have a thing for fields 🙂

i LOVE this wall.

i spotted this alley while we were walking across the street from it. we did some sketchy jaywalking to get to it, but it was pretty awesome 🙂 love the texture!

danielle, you were an absolute pleasure to photograph. i had so much fun with you! good luck with all your future endeavors – but i have a feeling that you are going to rock them 🙂